Hope and Happiness
by XanAxe14
Summary: I'm Hope, and I have a problem. I can't seem to stay happy for too long. It seems like when I do something ruins it. I'm happy with The Bar, Rollins and a certain Demon King, but I know my past will come back to haunt me sooner or later. The more I'm with these guys, the more I want to be happy, even if some of them are sending mixed signals. What should I do? A ?/OC fic.
1. Chapter 1

**I own no one but my character Hope Carlson. Enjoy!**

* * *

 **Hope and Happiness**

 **Chapter One**

"Hey, Ms. Carlson," said Stephanie McMahon. "Could you take these papers to my husband? These go to Finn Balor."

"Yes, ma'am." I said as I took the offered papers.

It was okay to work with the WWE, for the most part. Though as a Runner, I was almost always on the move when it came to televised shows and such like that.

One such superstar was Fergal Devitt, better known as Finn Balor. He was one of the hottest Raw superstars. And he was just as nice outside the show as he was in it.

"Are these the sketches you wanted?" I asked as I held out the papers to him.

"Yeah, thank you, Hope," he smiled at me.

Though he was not as big as the rest of the wrestlers, people like John Cena or Sheamus, I liked him. He had a quietness about himself, but a goofball at the same time. And he had lovely blue eyes. And the Irish accent he had was still breathtaking to listen to.

"Did you need anything else before I head off?" I asked.

"Don't scream." He looked at me with his eyes and a smirk playing at the corner of his mouth.

"Huh?"

Next thing I know was that there were a set of hands on my hips, at which point I gasped so loud it was like I was coming up for air. The papers in my hands didn't go flying, which was a good thing but when I turned around I had to look up at the laughing brown eyes of Cesaro.

"Claudio," I shoved him.

Of course he didn't budge, but he still laughed. He was dressed in that ridiculous jacket, his trunks and ring boots and the smile he gave me was all it took. I ended up laughing, along with Fergal and a nearby Sheamus.

"Why do you keep doing that?" I asked Claudio.

"Got her again?" Seth Rollins asked as he approached.

"Got her again." Claudio placed a hand on my shoulder. "It's too easy."

I straightened my glasses and looked back at Fergal. He shrugged.

"You guys are so annoying." I grumbled.

Colby Lopez in real life, Seth Rollins walked by me, his gripped my waist with his gloved hand and he leaned in. "Come on, you know you like it, Hope."

"Like a toothache." I countered as I pulled his hand off of me.

Just when I did that, Claudio wrapped his arms around my shoulders and pulled me to him. He placed his chin on top of my head, just to add insult to ego since he was pretty much well over a foot taller than me.

"Come out with us tonight after the show." He said.

"No." I tried to pry his arms off me.

"Yes." Colby said.

"No."

"Yes." The four men all said together.

I had a weird group of friends, seeing as that was strange in and of itself. How was it that I somehow managed to keep them as friends was even weirder. Stephen Farrelly, or Sheamus as he was known, was the first to approach me a few days after I started working as a Runner for the WWE. It just went deeper from there.

"If I say yes, will you let me go, Claudio?" I asked.

"Maybe." he murmured next to my ear.

"Fine."

"Fine? Just fine?" Fergal asked as he leaned against the wall across from us.

"Fine, I'll go out with you guys after the show. Now let me go, I still have runs to make." I said as I wiggled in Claudio's grasp.

He squeezed me, his cheek scraping up against my own. "Thank you."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," I managed to get out of his grasp. "You guys are all jerks."

"Well if you hadn't whistled your way into our lives we wouldn't have a reason to annoy you." Colby said as he pushed a lock of hair from his face.

I shook my head and walked away, biting my lower lip so they wouldn't see me blushing. With everything that had happened to me in my life, it all seemed to be going away. With four large men making me feel like I was back in high school. But unlike back in high school, they liked me.

Several turns later, I ended up in the main area where the Authority was holed up for Raw.

"Hope, thank goodness." I looked up again, this time at Triple H. "How's my favorite Runner?"

"I had to bypass The Bar, Rollins, and a Demon King just to get here." I shook my head as I flipped through the papers I was holding. "Here, this is what you were looking for."

"Thanks." He smiled. "I hope the divas aren't giving you any issues."

The only two divas that really did give me issues was Sonya and Alicia Fox, concerning my apparent overweight status. Though there was some weird thing with Sasha Banks that I couldn't understand, she just didn't seem to like me. But I wasn't going to say all that.

"No, no issues whatsoever." I looked at the papers. "Need anything before I run off again?" I asked.

"I'm fine, thanks." He waved the papers at me as he turned back to the chair he had been sitting in. "So they did get the memo about that NXT guy."

I turned and headed out. There were plans for the costume department that needed to be delivered and the electrical set up staff was down a man so I offered to help after I made rounds.

Working with the WWE was something I had appreciated, something that was great for me at that point in my life. It was strange to have people like Seth Rollins, Cesaro, Sheamus and Finn Balor as friends. At first I just tried to go under people's radar but it was the whistle, just a high pitched whistle to get the two rosters to listen up for Mr. McMahon's sake. After that, that was when everything seemed to get interesting.

Rounding a corner, more towards the stage I had one last delivery of papers to do. I found Renee talking to her husband Dean Ambrose. Actually it was more like Renee was talking and Dean looked rather tired. He was out on a true injury he sustained from Braun Strowman, so he was probably loopy from pain killers or he was just not there.

"Hey, Renee." I said. "Here's your script for tonight."

She smiled at me. "Thanks, Hope."

It was strange, being that before working for the company I had a major crush on Dean Ambrose. But it was more like respect. It was a respect for him and for Renee.

I lightly kicked his foot. "You okay in there, Jon?" I asked.

"Not in the least, chunky buns." He responded.

"Jon." Renee slapped his thigh.

I waved it off. "It's okay, Renee, I know he's joking. Shouldn't he be home, this is Vegas after all."

"He didn't feel like staying at home."

I shifted a little. Jon wasn't really paying attention, or at least I thought he wasn't. "Claudio, Colby, Fergal and Stephen asked me to go hang out with them after the show." I told Renee.

"Good. Bout time you had some fun." Jon crossed his good arm over his chest as he leaned back in the chair he was sitting in.

"Gee, thanks, Jon." I mumbled.

"You don't go out all that often, Hope. I mean, it's not frowned upon for you to hang out with the superstars." Renee said.

It was that one word, guys. Why with all my issues with dating was it not hard for me to have a friendship with a guy? Let alone a group of them? Sure they flirted but I was nowhere near the stratosphere as any of the other divas were.

I bit the inside of my lip.

"She's too old for Rollins." Jon said, then chuckled to himself.

"I'm only six months older than him."

"Still, you're older. I don't see you screwing Sheamus anytime soon. Maybe Cesaro or Finn." He tapped his chest. "You could screw both."

"Jon, you're not helping." Renee said.

"I'm not going to get involved with someone I work with. That's not going to happen. But you're right, about having fun. I do deserve some fun right now." I said.

"Good." Jon said.

"Now I have to go help the electrical team. They're a man down and I am just the woman that they need."

We said our goodbyes or farewells, or just a wave from Jon. I didn't see Joe Anoa'i around, which wasn't all that surprising. Roman Reigns was sort of being pushed beyond what Joe wanted but it was what the company wanted that mattered.

For the next couple of hours I had to restock anything in the catering area. Get scared witless by Finn Balor in his Demon King get up, engaged in sweat sandwich hug from Cesaro and Sheamus and then there was Seth Rollins. The stupid idiot, thought it would be fun to poke me in my ribs as I was stretching and yawning at the same time. Of course I gasped and he, along with a lot of other people nearby, laughed. All in all, it was a good night.

I was waiting outside the back door after the show. I had watched others superstars and divas leave for the night. They waved, said their goodbyes as I waited for my friends to show up.

"Ready to go?" Claudio asked as I stood at the back exit of the arena.

I, again, jumped. "What is with you tall freaks sneaking up so quietly?" I asked as I clasped my hand over my chest.

Fergal, Colby and Stephen weren't far behind Claudio. Of course they were smiling like idiots.

Stephen laughed. "'Cause it's fun. What you think?"

Fergal winked at me. "I think you're cute jumping like that."

"And I think you like it." Colby half wrapped his arm around my hip and let it drag across my waist as he walked around me with his bag in hand.

I felt the heat in my face. But luckily it was dulled from the street lamps in the parking lot. The guys loaded up a rental car and we all got in. Colby drove, Stephen road shotgun and I was squeezed between Claudio and Fergal. I think it was more cramped with my ass in there but that's besides the point though neither the Swiss Superman or the Demon King said anything about it.

* * *

 **Can't wait to hear from you guys about this new story. I don't know if this is going to be a Seth/OC or a Cesaro/OC story yet, but as we go, I'll figure it out.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

Of course we end up at a bar nightclub thing. The Bar loved their bars. It was some place along the Vegas Strip, with loud music and other superstars that wanted to have a good time. It was packed with loud music, people bunched in various places, bouncers as big as wrestlers were there to keep the peace. Lights danced across everyone, black lights and strobe lit up people wearing white tops or other black light changing outfits. Besides Stephen, the guys were pretty much dress in black and I was still wearing my casual slacks and red blouse.

Fergal followed me, but I was behind Claudio. As people started pressing in I grabbed the back of Claudio's jacket so that I wouldn't lose him in the crowd. My heart stopped thudding when he reached back and took my hand in his. We ended up at a bar that was located above the dance floor, which was where a lot of people from Raw were gathered.

"Why'd you guys bring her?" I looked up at Sasha Banks as she approached.

"Cause we actually like her." Colby responded.

We walked away, but that didn't stop me from seeing Sasha's face grow dark with annoyance. Maybe it had something to do with who I was with. But wasn't she married or something?

The music wasn't as loud up on the second level but Banks had said that loud enough for pretty much everyone to hear. Pamela Martinez, or Bayley, waved at me while smiling her usual cheery self. I offered a wave back. But it didn't stop Sasha from sticking her nose up and walking away.

Claudio guided me towards where Colby and Stephen were sitting, at a small circular table away from everyone else.

"I can't believe you guys brought me here." I said as I sat down.

Stephen propped his hand on the back of my chair. "Well, it got ya out of your hotel room, didn't it?"

I shrugged. "Yeah, I guess."

I was still holding Claudio's hand as he sat with them on his thigh. I let go, and pulled away, preferring it in my lap instead. He didn't seem to pay attention to that, though.

Colby was talking to Fergal about their spot with the Intercontinental championship with The Miz that was coming up. Stephen was people watching from his place near the window that looked down at the club below us.

"Hi, what can I get you guys?" The waitress asked in a huffed voice.

The guys listed off two Guiness beers, a beer for Colby, of all things a Martini for Claudio and I said water.

"Sacrilege! We're here to get lose and you're not." Colby looked at me.

"I don't drink, Colby." I said simply. "You can have twice as fun for my sake though."

"Yeah, but then I wouldn't be able to keep my hands off you." He responded with a smirk on his face. "Now that's a good reason to get shit faced."

I heard Stephen chuckle from next to me.

"Creepy." I crossed my arms and glared at him.

"Well it helps I can't anyways. Admit it, you love it when we touch you." He leaned forward with his arms on the table. Fergal mimicked him but smirked at me instead.

"Finn doesn't." I retorted. "Even Claudio doesn't do it as often as you."

At which point the Swiss Superman leaned over and kissed my cheek. I swatted at him, pushing him away from me all the while the others chuckled.

"Here's your drinks." The waitress said as she came back.

She was giving Fergal a full view of her cleavage as she placed the drink orders down. She didn't even bother to look at me when she put the bottle of water down.

"Do you guys need anything else?" She asked.

"No, we're fine." Fergal said as he leaned back with his Guiness in hand.

I could feel the twinges of a headache forming somewhere at the back of my head, it was starting to crawl up the middle of my back and into my head. Maybe this was how Stephen felt, he had been having some problems with his neck, something to do with the narrowing of the spinal column up in in his neck.

We ended up talking, mostly the guys did, about stuff like family and friends. Fergal had been invited to something back in Orlando after this round of house shows was over. Stephen was more interested in relaxing back at his place when they came back through Florida in a few weeks.

"I heard they have some new talent coming up from NXT." Claudio said.

"That don't surprise me any. With what Ben has been going through," Fergal said.

Ben was known as WWE Neville, the so called King of the Cruiserweights. There were issues brewing between Neville and the WWE about their crappy treatment of him. He'd walked out of Raw and hadn't been back in a few months. I wasn't around when that happened.

I didn't watch NXT all that much, it was hard enough to keep what was going on in the televised shows straight. Apparently they had been getting some really good talent in and were ready to send some up for the main rosters.

"When are you on next, Hope?" Claudio asked me.

"I'm not on for SmackDown this time. The house show Thursday because Raw next Monday." I answered before taking a drink of my water.

"Could you ride with us?" He asked.

"I'm supposed to ride out on the staff bus." I said.

"No." The four of them said together again.

"What the hell is with you guys wanting to be with me all of a sudden?" I asked.

"You're fun to be around." Fergal said.

"You're quite nice to look at." Colby said.

"Ain't scared of us." Stephen said.

And Claudio said something in German, which caused the four of us to look at him all at once. He he wiggled his eyebrows, smirked and took a drink of his cocktail.

"I'll have to talk to my supervisor." I finally said.

"I'm sure he'll understand." Colby leaned back.

"Pam!" Fergal laughed as she came up.

"Hey guys. Hey, Hope. I thought since Hope was outnumbered four to one by men, I should join her." Pam said as she brought a chair with her.

Claudio scooted closer towards me, his thigh bumping up against mine so that Pam was sitting between him and Fergal.

I glanced between her and Fergal, who was smiling. Maybe it was the Irish in him or the fact that they both had a great chemistry back in NXT, but they sort of looked good together. She had always been nice to me, so that was an added bonus. I began to relax and I did enjoy myself.

Claudio's arm was resting on the back of my chair as the guys talked about things. And then the obvious came up.

"Hey, Hope, why don't you date? You've been here months and you haven't dated someone yet." Pam said.

"I like to keep professional and personal lives separate." I answered staring at my empty water bottle. "Makes waking up in the morning easier."

"You break our hearts." Claudio said, his thumb brushing up under the nape of my neck.

I didn't want to go into it further. Maybe they had seen my face, seen me looking at the table for too long. It still hurt, what happened to me, but it hurt less being around these guys. At least I had five friends instead of none. Like Stephen the older brother, Colby the younger sex pest, Fergal the foreign exchange student friend, Pam the only girlfriend and Claudio, whom I hadn't come up with an analogy for at that point. They all meant something to me. Even the other superstars didn't seem to mind me, with a few minor exceptions.

"Well, I'm ready to hit the sack." Stephen announced, raising his arms over his head.

I shook my head out of my thoughts and looked around the table.

"I'm going to stick around here for a while. I drove in with Becky and Nia." Pam said. "We should hang out again, Hope. I really like you."

"I think I'll stick around." Fergal said, watching Pam stand up and head back towards her friends. "Shouldn't be too much longer."

Double O-Cesaro nodded. "Yeah. We have a drive ahead of us tomorrow, you better not be late."

"I'll pay the tab." Colby announced. "I'll meet you guys out at the car."

It was only about ten o'clock. Why would Colby be ready to head back to the hotel now? I stood up, yawned. Well I was tired, but then again I wasn't the one that had matches and had to fight other equally impressive men.

The club dance floor was packed even worse than when we arrived. Stephen led the way, Claudio in front and I was behind him. We skirted the dance floor all together and again when I grabbed the back of Claudio's jacket, his hand came back around and his fingers intertwined with mine. He only looked back at me once, smiled before following Stephen out of the place.

I pulled my hand out of his when we got outside. He looked at me but didn't say anything as we made our way over to the car.

As I went to step down off the curb I twisted my ankle in such a way, I fell hard and I screamed as I did so.

* * *

 **I hope you guys liked this update. Let me know what you think if you want. I have several more chapters lined up for you guys. I'll be back when I can.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

"Hope? Oh my God, what happened?" Colby asked as he came jugging up.

"I twisted my ankle." I said as I rubbed it.

Claudio was kneeling in front of me and inspecting the damage. Stephen was letting me lean my head up against his knee as the Swiss superstar shook his head.

"Severely sprained, Prinzessin." Claudio said as he looked at me.

"I kind of figured." I grumbled. "And don't call me Princess."

"I'll get the door." Stephen said.

"Come on, Prinzessin," Claudio said holding his hands out to me.

"Stop calling me that, Claudio." I didn't mean to bark at him, but between embarrassment and pain, I was annoyed with him. "Sorry, Claud."

"I know you're in pain, no need for sorries."

I took his hands but felt Colby behind me, lifting me up under my arms. I tried to balance on my right foot and on instinct I put my left foot down. I almost fell again, if it hadn't been for Claudio pulling me into him. Colby pressed his hands into my back as I clung to Claudio with all that I could muster, my fingers burying into the fabric of his jacket.

"I got you, Hope." he said just over my head.

I squeezed my eyes shut as my left ankle throbbed with pain. Tears started to spring to the corners of my eyes but I held my breath to keep them away.

I felt Colby with his hands on my waist. He said something to Claudio but it was mumbled to me. The next part was me being scooped up into a pair of arms.

"What do you think you're doing?" I asked as I threw an arm around Claudio's shoulders.

"You're not walking." He then added insult to injury. "Prinzessin."

He helped me to the car. Without Fergal being there I was able to sit in the back with no problems, but it still felt weird that Claudio had to carry me there. I was no dainty thing either, far from diva status. Colby still drove, Stephen was up in the front shotgun seat and I was in the backseat with Claudio.

I had thought that I was going to be going back to the hotel where the other road staffers were staying, which was a couple of blocks from where the main roster was staying. But no, I was taken directly to where the guys were staying.

"Why are we here?" I asked.

"We didn't feel like driving all over the place so you're stuck with us." Colby said.

"I don't even have my stuff."

"Don't worry about it, Hope." Claudio said before he got out of the car.

I watched him go around to my side and opened my door. Again, he insisted on carrying me with Colby and Stephen leading the way. In the lobby Triple H was just coming out of the elevator with Stephanie McMahon when they spotted us.

"What happened?" Stephanie asked.

"I was a klutz." I said. "And they kidnapped me."

Triple H tried not to smile, Stephanie had her head tilted and I felt the heat raise to my face again. It didn't help that Claudio was close to rubbing my ass cheek with his thumb.

"I'll let your supervisor know you won't working for a few days."

"She can still travel with us though, right?" Claudio asked.

"You're consenting adults, I don't see why not." Stephanie said.

"I haven't consented to anything, ma'am." I replied.

"Too damn bad, you're stuck with us." Colby said.

Stephen nodded. "We ain't going nowhere without ya."

"Groovy." I grumbled, which earned a snort laugh from Triple H and Stephen hid her smile behind her hand.

"We'll let you guys head on up." Triple H said. "We have some NXT talent coming in soon that we were going to take out to dinner."

"Night, guys." Stephanie waved.

I looked at Claudio as he brought me into the elevator. "I'm too heavy for you to be carrying around."

"No you're not, Prinzessin."

"I'm not your Princess." He smiled in response. "I'm really not your Princess, Claudio."

"So you say."

The three of us got up to the floor where the superstars were being kept. I ended up in a room where there was one bed.

"Whose room is this?" I asked.

"Mine." Claudio said as he put me down on the edge of the bed.

Colby knelt down in front of me to take off my shoes, being extra careful of my left ankle. "Damn, Babe, look at your ankle."

"Bruised already?" Stephen asked as he came to look.

Pretty much the entire ankle was bruised, broken blood vessels just below the surface bursting when I fell onto it. My foot pulsated as Claudio walked up with a bag of ice.

The realization hit that I was sitting down in front of three men who were now standing. Maybe in some fanfiction somewhere this would have been great, but it wasn't for me. Hell, in a porno this would have been great, too, had Fergal been there. But no, I was injured, if I felt like running there was a chance I could have broken my ankle in the process of trying to leave. The fact that any of them would have caught me made me look away from them.

"Hey," Colby placed a hand on my shoulder. "Hope, are you okay?"

Irrational thoughts my ass, I was going back to dark places in my mind and in my life where I shouldn't have gone to. I knew that the three of them wouldn't do anything like what my mind was telling me.

"I'm not a happy camper." I leaned back on my elbows.

"Scoot." Claudio said.

He leaned over me, took the back of my knee and moved my leg over the bed. I followed his movements, scooting up on the bed and resting my back against the pillows. Colby leaned over, grabbed an unused pillow and propped my leg onto it.

"Got any beer in here?" Stephen asked as he headed for the mini bar.

I sighed, the cold dulling the pain in my ankle and my eyes closed. I had to forget that there were three men with me, three men who were extremely attractive and I was in no way of fighting them.

Bad thoughts, more sexual than any other, krept into my brain as my mind wondered what it would be like with each of them. Colby would be rough, Stephen may have swoon me with Irish talk and Claudio would be saying stuff in German while he lay over me. All of that thinking only made my body feel alert as someone's hand touched the hem of my shirt around my waist.

I grabbed the person's wrist. "Don't."

"I wasn't trying anything, Babe." Colby said.

I looked at him. "Don't, just don't. I'm not in the mood right now."

He leaned closer, his hand pressing in on the other side of my head. "I'm not ever going to hurt you, Hope. No way in Hell would I ever do that."

It was the way he said it, the way he was looking at me with his brown eyes. He looked hurt, or something like that. I had to do something or else it would have gotten weirder.

"I'm heading off to my room." Stephen announced. "I'll check up on ya tomorrow, lass."

"Thanks, fella." I replied earning a chuckle from him.

Claudio was taking his shoes off, tossing his jacket onto the back of a nearby chair. Colby was more interested in leaning up against my side of the bed to play with his phone. Now the tension was gone, and I was able to breath without fear of bursting out crying in fear.

"I just told Ferg what happened. He says he's on the way back with some of the women." Colby said.

"Do you think Fergal and Pam look cute together?" i asked out of nowhere.

"Yes." My two male companions said together.

"They should get together then."

"Maybe they will." Claudio said as he rested his head against the stack of pillows I was occupying.

"I was hoping we could go out." Colby said. "You know to dinner, Hope."

I could only make out the back of his head from where he was sitting. Somehow I think he was having a text conversation with Fergal.

"I don't know, maybe." I said. "It depends on our schedules."

We stayed like this for a while, until the point where I was nodding off. The bag of ice melted and I was tired. Everything that had happened just knocked me out.

* * *

 **Here you guys go. I hope you like it. Let me know what you think if you want. Gotta go, I'll be around soon.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

I woke up to a throbbing sensation in my ankle. When I had fully woken up I heard slight snoring coming from either side of me. Wait, both sides?

That was when I realized how hot I felt, it was an overwhelming heat enveloped me. As I blinked I felt someone's hand on the inside of my thigh and my head was rising and falling at a steady pace.

Somehow, or some way or another, I found myself in bed between Cesaro and Seth Rollins. My left leg was over Colby's lap and I was using Claudio as a pillow, with his arm pinned under my right shoulder. This was a delicious outcome, except for one small fact, they weren't wearing much in way of clothes but at least I was.

This friendship I had with these guys was getting even more complicated.

I shifted, at which point Colby's hand went up further on my leg as he groaned in his sleep. Claudio, instead, grunted as he lifted his head.

"What time is it?" He asked, which was followed by Swiss German words that may have been curse words.

"Early." Seth stretched.

"How is the ankle, Hope?" Claudio asked.

"Still hurts. I may need to ice it again." I said as I froze in place. "Rollins, stop rubbing my thigh."

"No."

"Sex pest." I said as I removed his hand.

"Only for you." He still had his arm over his face.

Claudio was the first to get up. He was wearing boxer briefs and my eyes traveled as he strolled over towards the hotel bathroom with a handful of clothing. I clamped a hand over my face and groaned. I was beginning to miss my human pillow.

As I found my glasses, there was a knock on the door, which made Colby groan. He lifted my leg off of his and I sat up to watch him.

"Oh, hey, Ferg." Colby said.

I watched the Demon King walk into the room and sat up straighter when he turned his eyes on me. Colby went to get some ice as Fergal walked up to me.

"How ya feeling?" He asked checking my still bruised ankle.

"Hurts but it's less today than it was last night."

His hand was cool when he lightly touched my ankle. I hissed, and when I did he looked up at me. His jaw was set hard, his eyes narrowed as well and I could see he wasn't all too happy. But slowly his face softened.

"You'll be all right." He said, his thumb rubbing the top of my foot. "You're strong."

"Hell yeah, she is." Colby said as he walked back to the bed. "She fought Claud when it came to his pet name for her."

"Princess? Why do you hate that name, Hope?" Fergal asked.

I hissed when the cold ice pack was placed on my ankle. "I just don't care for it. That's all."

"Did you keep her warm last night?" Fergal asked as he sat down in the nearby hotel chair.

"Yeah, we did. Claudio didn't want me jacking up my back so we shared the bed together. It was lovely to wake up as a footrest."

"You were groping my thigh." I countered Colby's statement.

The bathroom door opened and out came Claudio. He was wearing sweatpants and an athletic sports tank top. With no hair on his head, at least he didn't have to brush it. Colby claimed the bathroom next, him grabbing some clothes for himself on the way in.

"Prinzessin," Claudio said as he approached the bed. "Good, you have more ice on it."

I looked down at my foot. "Yeah, I do." I didn't really know what to say about that. "And stop calling me Princess."

He only offered me a smile as he went for his phone.

"So, what are we doing today?" Fergal asked.

"Workout and then head out. Are we all heading out together?" Claudio asked.

"I think so. We still have the SUV." Colby said.

"Good." Claudio said.

"Are we heading out soon?" Fergal asked as he sat down on the bed next to me.

"Yeah, when Shey gets here." Claudio said.

Of course they were all talking workouts, which was over my head. I of course wouldn't be able to go anywhere and I was more than happy to lay around and get some more sleep before we had to leave. So I didn't say anything.

Until the three men turned and looked at me. I felt the heat rise to my face and I tried to sit up on the bed. Fergal was the first to touch me. I flinched, my knee jerking up.

"Come on, Hope." His thumb rubbed my knee. "You're coming with us."

"I'll be dead weight. I can't walk."

"We're not leaving you alone, Babe." Colby said.

"I don't even have a change of clothes."

"I called Shey to bring over a change for you." Claudio said as he found his shoes under the nearby table.

"Why? I can stay by myself for a little while, can't I?" I asked. Why was I asking, of course I could.

"Nope, you're coming with us." Fergal said.

There was a knock at the door, which turned out to be Stephen when Claudio answered.

"Anderson just passed by." The redhead Irishman said to his fellow Irishman. "He's headin' out to go see his kids."

"Great. He and Gallows need to see their families." Fergal said. "Speaking of, my parents are coming in for Mania." Of course he was looking at me when he said this.

"Last time you had them around, you got injured." Colby said.

"Yeah, I know. Mam doesn't want that to happen again."

"No more running powerbombs, got it." Colby held up two thumbs.

Stephen tossed me some sport shorts and one of his work out shirts, a gray one. I flinched when he went to inspect my ankle.

"Bleeding," he mumbled. "Don't look too bad now. Last night was awful."

"It doesn't hurt as bad as before." I said as I gathered up the offered clothes. "Now, if I am going to go with you guys, either all of you get out of here or someone helps me to the bathroom so I can change."

Just after saying that, I was lifted up by Colby. I yelped, not out of pain, but I did latch onto a well defined arm and felt another arm slide around my waist, lifting me up off the bed. My feet were only on the floor long enough before I was being half carried across the room towards the bathroom.

"Got her, Rollins?" Fergal asked from the door.

"Yeah. Come on, Hope."

"No." I grabbed his wrist. "Stop, please, don't." I started reimagining what had happened before, images of the man and me together in a bathroom and it felt like my chest was going to explode.

He stopped, hands holding my shoulders. "Hope, hey, I was just playing with you. You know we horse around like this a lot."

"Something happened to me the last time some guy took me into a bathroom." I felt the prickling of the tears, the burning at the corner of my eyes. My heart was in pounding into my ribs and my throat had gone dry.

The nearby men stared at me. Colby still had his hands on my shoulders but Fergal was making his way towards me with a look I didn't comprehend.

"We'll leave you to it then, Hope." He said. "Come on, man. I think she can do this on her own."

"Yeah, sure." Colby dropped his hands. "Just holler if you need some help."

Using the counter as a makeshift crutch, I closed the door behind me and looked into the mirror at myself.

Sure my usual dirty blond hair was hanging around my face, my odd dark blue eyes looked back at me from behind glasses and I was slightly overweight, nothing new there. But why, why the hell did I have these guys as friends? Where was Pam when I needed a female friend.

I could hear the guys talking outside in the main room, though muffled by the closed door. I grabbed the cloths off the counter and sitting on the toilet, I redressed into the more athletic attire that was given to me. I was thankful that Stephen had a larger torso than the others, I couldn't possibly fit into their clothes if they offered.

When I opened the door, Claudio was standing there waiting. But he was alone, no one else was there in the room like I had thought they would be.

"Where's the guys gone?" I asked.

"I asked them to head out before me. I wanted to talk to you alone." He slipped his arm around my waist and with the other eased my arm around his shoulder. "Up we go, Prinzessin."

He picked me up as he had done before even when I could have limped over to the bed myself. Claudio only took a handful of steps to get me to the bed where he lightly put me down on it. I still felt that my face was hot, so I ran my hands over my cheeks just to cool them down.

"What happened, Hope?"

"I don't want to talk about it, Claudio." I said as I glanced at him. "It was a while ago, something happened in a bathroom somewhere and I've tried to forget about it."

"You can tell me, Prinzessin, you know none of us would ever hurt you."

I looked at my hands. My fingers were laced together and I was playing with the simple plain metal band that was on my right pinky finger.

"Please?" Claudio dipped his head a little closer to me.

"I was attacked in a bathroom." I said, though it sounded more like a whisper to me. "By an ex of mine."

I heard him say something in German, which wasn't all that funny. Knowing him, he was cursing again but tried to hide it with his Swiss German language.

"I know it's strange that I am friends with a group of guys that would otherwise not even look twice at me." I said. "I just like you guys. You've proven time and again that you aren't going to hurt me, even when my brain goes to that dark place."

"We would never hurt you, Hope. That is the last thing we would want."

"I want to tell the guys this, this fact, later." I wrung my hands a little. "I will, Claud, I just don't know how to bring it up."

"I'll stop touching…" I stopped him when I took his wrist with my hand.

"I adore your hugs, even with what Colby does I don't mind it. I know it's harmless fun and that you guys just want me to feel like a part of something. But don't stop hugging me, Claudio."

He pressed his forehead into the side of my head and wrapped one of his long arms around my shoulders, drawing me closer to him. This made me smile. We shared a moment of silence for something he didn't totally understand, but was aware of.

But I didn't tell the truth, I kept my mouth shut and would have to wait until the best time to tell these guys the whole truth about what had happened to me in a bathroom.

* * *

 **When I wrote this I was a little worried about where the story was going. But I liked it for the most part. I hope you guys did, too.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

Claudio and I took a taxi to to the gym. He helped me out of the car and we walked, well he walked into the gym while helping me hop along.

"Hey, we're over here!" Colby called out from the weight area. "Take it easy, Hope."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," I mumbled.

I didn't understand the need for being in a gym, I walked a lot and tried to eat the best that I could.

Joe Anoa'i turned from where he was doing some reps on a pull up bar. "Hey, High Hopes." He said, smiling, but then it fell. "What happened?"

"The ground snuck up on me and hit me." I said, wincing as I found a nearby chair. "It's better this morning."

"Good." He said looking down at me.

"How is Ms. G and Ms. Joelle and the rugrats doing?" I asked. Because I could not properly say Joe's wife's name hence Ms. G. Joe didn't seem to mind.

"They're okay. You should really meet them, Galina likes you."

Another reason why I was such a good friend to him; I somehow befriended Roman Reign's wife. He had lost his cell phone one day in an arena and I found it while it was ringing up a storm. The woman on the other end was a little frantic, she may have been pissed off because I was a woman answering his phone. Luckily he came by and I held it out and spoke in a sing-song sort of way.

"Row, Row, Roman Reigns, your wife's on the phone."

It was bad joke, but at least it got her to laugh. At the time I was becoming friends with the guys, with some of them at least. Colby decided to play along and take the phone from me before Joe could get to it. Ms. G really lightened up to me after that.

Now we were a bunch of friends hanging out in a gym somewhere, well more like I was hanging out and they were working out.

"Here." Fergal handed me an ice pack. "Keep ice on it, Hope." His hand rested on my shoulder and he looked at me with a steady gaze. I could feel the heat rise up on my face.

I sighed and propped my foot up on a stack of athletic mats nearby, dropping the cold pack on my ankle. I saluted him, and reclined back so that I could play with my phone. Fergal walked away, but I knew he would glance back at me.

Why did they insist on having me at the gym if I wasn't going to work out? I liked walking, I liked plugging my headphones in and going for a leisure walk. I was by far not skinny, not overly fat but I still had a middle to me.

"Hi, Prinzessin," I heard Claudio say.

I tilted my head back only to find a hot man standing there. His manly chest hair was glistening, his abs tight as he breathed. My eyes traveled up to Claudio's wide shoulders and then his face. He was smiling at me, his brown eyes crinkling at the corners and a sheen of sweat at the crest of his head. Damn him for not wearing that shirt he came in with.

"Hi." I said. I decided to let one Princess slip by.

"How are you?" He asked, glancing down at my ankle.

I opened my mouth, only to stop when I saw Colby re-adjusting his wrist wraps. He was watching us and he was smiling. The sex pest was smiling, for what reason I didn't know.

Claudio reached over and picked up the ice pack, nodding at the pink exposed skin of my upper ankle. "Keep icing it. Do you need a pain reliever?"

"If I'm doing something to keep my mind of it, it doesn't really bother me." I said with a shrug.

I glanced at the clock on my phone and found that it was hard to believe that only an hour had passed since I got to the gym. And it seemed like this one gym had a lot of superstars coming in. With Mania coming around the corner soon, it was no wonder that there were more superstars coming up from NXT and some returning guys as well.

"Hope? What the hell are you doing here?"

His name was Rayner Buchanan and he was my ex boyfriend. He barely even looked at Claudio as he stood staring at me, eyes sweeping over me and then over at the obvious ice pack.

"I could ask you the same thing, Rayner." I said.

My ex was imposing in a Brock Lesnar sort of way but less ugly, not appealing like Claudio or Colby. Rayner didn't get Mount Rainier as a nickname for no reason. He was nearly seven feet tall, broad in every definition and imposing. I unconsciously felt myself slide down in as his steely blue eyes looked at me. They weren't the nice blue eyes of Fergal, who was also watching the exchange from a fair distance away.

"I'm being brought up to Raw. What are you doing here?" He asked.

"Just hanging out." I made a half ass gesture with my head towards Claudio. "Some of my friends invited me out."

"Did you hurt yourself in a work out? Also, since when did you ever work out, you never did before even when I told you to."

"Yeah, you bossed me around a lot." I stated and he made a face. "My friends don't care if I do or don't work out. They would rather hang out with me."

"Really? And he's a friend?" Rayner looked over at Claudio. "I'm shocked, actually."

"Why?" Claudio asked, standing a bit straighter. "Why would that surprise you?"

I sat up straighter, only because Colby, Fergal and Stephen were making their collective way towards us. Joe stood nearby, his hands full of a weight bar, but his attention fully on us. Even Pam and some of the other divas were watching.

"Hey, Babe." Colby said approaching. "How's the ankle?"

I shrugged. "Not as painful, it's more of dull throb now."

"You fell pretty hard outside the club." Stephen said, his shoulder pressed up against the wall. "We're just worried about you, lass."

"Thanks, big guy." I said.

"Since when do you go to a club?" Rayner asked, his voice inching up in tone.

Colby, instead shifted my hair off my shoulder to rub my neck.

I think I knew what was going on, because Colby leaned down and kissed the side of my head. He was playing up, especially seeing the way Rayner was almost bug eyed when I managed to get a peek at him again. Claudio was running his hand up and down my calf, which made me even more uncomfortable. It wasn't unpleasing but it was sending sensations to a part of my body that hadn't felt action for a while.

"You guys should go back to your workouts." I said. I reached over and patted Colby's thigh a little, since it was the only part of him I could reach. "I know you don't get enough of it when you're on the road. I'll be fine, I promise. Finish up so we can all head out."

The men turned towards Rayner, who shrugged.

"Whatever you say, Hope. You'll be seeing more of me, I'm being moved up soon to the main roster. It'll be fun to hang out again." Rayner smiled. Then he turned and headed off somewhere, I couldn't see where because Colby was in my line of sight.

"What the hell was that?" Fergal asked when he turned back towards me.

"An ex." I said, fretting with the corner of my phone case.

"You dated that thing?" Colby asked.

I managed a nod, not really looking at them. "Yeah, I did. But he cheated one too many times so I dropped him. That was when I was a Runner for NXT."

"Not when I was on." Fergal pointed out.

"No, he was signed shortly after your main roster debut. I wasn't even working then either. I came in about the same time as Rayner."

"And now you work for the main rosters." I didn't know if that was a question from Claudio but he didn't seem to like something at the moment. I'd hazard a guess and say it was Rayner.

"Guys, just go get sweaty, take a shower so we can leave." I ran a hand through my hair. "We have a long drive out and I think I deserve some alone time to myself.

Luckily they did do as I said. I didn't know what it was that surprised me more, that Rayner was there at all or that the men all ganged up in my defense.

I think it was the latter that surprised me more. I never really had anyone to step up for my defense, to piss off someone who was giving me a hard time. I shook my head and looked at my phone.

The throbbing came back. It wasn't just my ankle this time, it was deep within my chest.

* * *

 **Yay, another update. I hope you guys liked it. I'll be back when I can.**


End file.
